Fed Chair's Softer Inflation Tone Lifts BTC Past $61,000
Bitcoin climbed above $61,000 on Thursday, gaining over 4% after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation risks had eased. The move diverged sharply from a 7.9% drop in South Korea's Kospi index driven by AI chip demand concerns.
Bitcoin surged more than 4% to trade above $61,000 on Thursday, reaching its highest level in over a week, after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh signaled that inflation risks had eased. The move pushed the asset away from a recent low of $58,200 and marked a notable divergence from a broad sell-off in technology equities.
Speaking at the European Central Bank's forum in Sintra, Portugal, Warsh delivered his first notably dovish comment since a hawkish June rate outlook triggered weeks of sustained outflows from U.S. bitcoin exchange-traded funds. His remarks reduced fears of additional restrictive monetary policy and appeared to directly catalyze the crypto bid.
The rally stood in contrast to a sharp downturn in tech-heavy equity markets. South Korea's Kospi index dropped 7.9% on the same day after Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together shed approximately $290 billion in combined market value — the second time this month the index has fallen sharply on concerns surrounding artificial-intelligence chip demand, according to Bloomberg. Meta compounded the unease by announcing plans to sell spare computing capacity to outside customers, reigniting questions about whether AI infrastructure investment has outpaced actual demand.
Despite the pressure on Asian equities, bitcoin held its gains throughout the session. That relative strength has been largely absent during a quarter in which capital steadily rotated out of crypto and into AI-related assets.
FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich had flagged the situation as precarious earlier in the week, describing it as 'a rather dangerous consolidation for the bulls' while bitcoin remained pinned below $60,000. He identified $40,000 as the next meaningful support level if the current floor broke down. Thursday's rebound above $61,000 creates additional distance from that threshold, though analysts caution that a single strong session does not reverse a difficult first half of the year for the asset.
The next major market event is Friday's U.S. non-farm payrolls report. A stronger-than-expected jobs print would give the Federal Reserve justification to maintain its restrictive stance, while a softer reading would revive expectations for interest rate cuts. The report is broadly expected to set the directional tone for crypto and broader risk markets heading into July.
Per CoinDesk data, bitcoin was up approximately 4.1% over the 24-hour period at the time of reporting, reflecting its firmest weekly footing since the most recent leg of the sell-off began.
